Equal Opportunity in the Fort Wayne Community Schools: A ...

Appendix CCommunications Regarding OCR's Handling of the Student AssignmentIssue in the Fort Wayne Community SchoolsMEMORANDUM DEPARTMENT of HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFAREOFFICE OF THE SECRETARYTO: Mr. Orrie BarrEducation Branch Chief/Region VDATE, HOV 1 1976FROM: Frederick T. Cioffi'Chief, Operations BranchSUBJECT: Review of Brown FilesDuring the last four months you have been periodically requested toassemble and ship several files to my office in Washington in orderthat they might be examined by representatives of the National Centerfor Policy Review pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.As a result of their review of said files, a question has arisen. Itappears that in a number of reviews the issue of student assignmentwas pursued or appears to have been pursued, yet the letter of findingswhich was sent to the LEA was silent on the issue. In their review ofthe file the National Center representatives were unable to observedocuments which would explain why the student assignment issues weredropped.Accordingly it is requested that you make a quick review of thefollowing files to determine whether documents exist therein which wouldanswer the question as to why the student assignment issue was dropped.1. South Bend, Indiana (File returned IO/27/76)2. Fort Wayne, Indiana (if you have the file)My recollection is that the files may be silent, since most of thesecases were presented verbally in Cleveland and/or San Francisco andthe decision to drop the issue was due to lack of sufficient evidence.Everything was verbal at these conferences.However, please call me with the results of your review by November k 91976.34